Tea bowl
Reading ちゃわんAlso written 茶盌 · 抹茶茶碗
The bowl in which powdered tea is whisked and drunk in the tea ceremony. Japanese sources sort bowls by origin into Chinese (唐物), Korean (高麗) and Japanese (和物), and judge them by rim, body, waist, foot and the inside. Chinese black-glazed tenmoku bowls led until the 16th century, then Korean everyday bowls such as ido and Japanese wares such as raku took their place. JAANUS gives an average of about 15 cm across and 8 cm high.
On this page
- 1Body
- 2Base
Form#
- Body
- 1open bowl; forms range from conical (tenmoku) and deep (ido) to cylindrical (tsutsu), flat (hira) and squashed oblong (kutsugata)
- Spout
- none
- Handle
- none
- Lid
- none
- Knob
- none
- Base
- 2foot ring (高台), wheel-cut or attached
1312 Numbers mark the parts described under Form.
Compare an object photograph · Cleveland Museum of Art · 1983.158
In use#
- Winter bowls usually have thicker walls and a deeper form to keep the tea hot; summer bowls are wider and shallower so it cools faster.6
- JAANUS says a shorter bowl is preferred in summer and a barrel-shaped one of about 10 cm across in winter, and that the bowl chosen follows the formality of the occasion (shin, gyō, sō).1
- The front of a bowl is set by its form, shape or main decoration.6
Working volume#
Distinguish a bowl’s brim volume from the smaller quantity used to prepare and drink tea. Interior profile, wall thickness and the chosen preparation method all matter. The measurements of a named museum bowl describe that object, not a standard capacity for the whole family.
Variants and sub-types#
| Name | 日本語 | Difference | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tenmoku Chawan (Conical Bowl) | 天目茶碗 | Conical bowl with a small unglazed ring foot and a sub-rim groove known in Japanese tea as a 'turtle-mouth' lip (鼈口 suppon-guchi), derived from Chinese Song Jian bowls; ranks at the top of the formal shin (真) hierarchy and is served on a lacquered stand (天目台 tenmokudai). | 2313 |
| Ido & Kōrai Chawan (Korean-lineage Bowl) | 井戸茶碗・高麗茶碗 | Deep, flaring Joseon-dynasty everyday stoneware bowls adopted by 16th-century Japanese wabi-cha masters; classified into Ō-Ido, Ko-Ido (小井戸), Ao-Ido (青井戸), Goki (呉器), and Mishima (三島). | 345 |
| Wan-nari / Raku Bowl (Hand-formed Bowl) | 椀形・楽茶碗 | Hand-pinched and carved (手捏ね tezukune, never wheel-thrown) low-fired lead-glazed bowl originated by Chōjirō under Sen no Rikyū in the Tenshō era (1573–1592); features a gentle incurved lip, thick insulating porous walls, and a small spirally carved foot in Black Raku (黒楽) or Red Raku (赤楽). | 136 |
| Tsutsu-chawan (Deep Cylindrical Winter Bowl) | 筒茶碗 | Tall, straight-walled cylinder whose height approaches or exceeds its rim diameter (e.g. Kyoto National Museum GK125, H 9.7 × Ø 10.0 cm; JAANUS notes winter bowls average Ø ~10 cm), minimizing exposed surface area to keep whisked matcha piping hot in midwinter. | 11011 |
| Hira-chawan (Shallow Summer Bowl) | 平茶碗 | Wide, shallow open bowl prescribed by Britannica Japan and JAANUS for midsummer tea gatherings (夏茶碗) so steam dissipates immediately and the wide water surface looks cool to the guest. | 136 |
| Kutsugata Chawan (Deformed 'Clog' Bowl) | 沓形茶碗 | Momoyama-period Mino (especially Black Oribe 黒織部 and Shino 志野) bowl deliberately warped after throwing into an asymmetrical oval silhouette resembling a wooden clog, with an undulating mountain-pass rim (Cleveland Museum of Art 2020.214, H 8.0 × W 14.2 × D 11.5 cm; National Treasure Uohana / Hirosawa). | 789 |
History#
- KamakuraTenmoku bowls are reportedly first brought to Japan by a monk; the Ashikaga shoguns later rank them as karamono.2
- to early 16th centuryMost tea bowls are Chinese imports; Nipponica names Jian 建盞 as the leading imported tenmoku.3
- 1530s-1550s (Tenbun)Korean bowls (高麗茶碗) appear in tea records; Nipponica gives 1537 as the first written mention. Many were everyday wares in Korea.4
- Tenshō (1573-92)Korean and Japanese bowls become central; Chōjirō makes the first raku bowls; Japanese kilns grow under Sen no Rikyū (1522-1591) and Furuta Oribe (1544-1615).3
- Edo, mid-18th century onWith sencha, smaller bowls for steeped tea come into use; Aoki Mokubei made small sencha bowls in the 19th century.3
Attributions are shown as the source states them.
In other traditions#
- Derived from Jian ware China Jian names a Chinese kiln tradition. Tenmoku is a broader Japanese term that can include bowls attributed to several Chinese kilns and examples made in Japan. 京都国立博物館
- Derived from Jian tea bowl China. Tenmoku variant; Seto potters copied the Chinese bowls by the end of the Kamakura period.13
- Derived from Korean tea bowl Korea. Ido and other Kōrai bowls were made in Korea, mostly in the Joseon period, and adopted for tea in Japan.4
Other recorded fields#
- Ambiguities
- Note: Name of tenmoku: JAANUS and English Wikipedia (citing the Met) link it to the Tianmu mountains, where Japanese monks obtained bowls; Nipponica stresses the Jian kilns of Fujian. Both can be true (made at Jian, obtained at Tianmu); not resolved here.2
- Note: Winter form: JAANUS says barrel-shaped; the tourism text says deeper and thicker-walled; no source read names the tsutsu bowl explicitly as the winter bowl.1
- Note: Rikyū's dates: the tourism text gives 1522-1591, JAANUS 1502-91.6
- Note: Rankings 一井戸二楽三唐津 and 一楽二萩三唐津 are both quoted in Britannica (Kotobank); English Wikipedia gives the second as a school saying. Recorded as sayings, not a ranking.3
Sources#
- JAANUS — chawan 茶碗 ↗
- JAANUS — tenmoku jawan 天目茶碗 ↗
- コトバンク「茶碗」（大辞泉, 日本国語大辞典, 世界大百科事典 [赤沼多佳], 日本大百科全書 [矢部良明], マイペディア, ブリタニカ小項目事典 ほか） ↗
- コトバンク「高麗茶碗」 ↗
- 博物館Dictionary No.230 呉器茶碗（降矢哲男, 2023-06-20） ↗
- 茶道具（多言語解説文） ↗
- 文化遺産オンライン — 志野茶碗（広沢）重要文化財 ↗
- Clog-shaped Teabowl 黒織部沓形茶碗, 2020.214 ↗
- 「桃山陶の美をつなぐ」出品リスト ↗
- 染付宝文筒茶碗 尾戸 (GK125) ↗
- 銹絵竹文筒茶碗 出雲楽山 (GK119) ↗
- The Art of Tea Bowls Appreciation (Pete Man) ↗
- Wikipedia (en) — Chawan ↗
- Tenmoku Teabowls
Named parts#
| Part | Name | Reading | Note | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| rim | 口造り | くちづくり (kuchizukuri) | The rim and how it is finished; the edge that meets the lips. | 1 |
| body | 胴 | どう (dō) | The wall between rim and waist. | 1 |
| waist | 腰 | こし (koshi) | Lower body above the foot; on the Hirosawa Shino bowl it is cut in facets with a spatula. | 7 |
| inside | 見込み | みこみ (mikomi) | The inside of the bowl, especially the inner floor. | 5 |
| tea pool | 茶溜り | ちゃだまり (chadamari) | Shallow hollow in the inner floor where the last tea gathers; described on the Hirosawa Shino bowl. | 7 |
| foot ring | 高台 | こうだい (kōdai) | The ring foot; split feet (割高台) and other shapes are used to classify bowls. A foot may be carved from the body (削り出し高台) or added (付け高台). | 5 |
| inside of the foot | 高台内 | こうだいうち (kōdai-uchi) | Area inside the foot ring, sometimes spatula-carved on Korean bowls. | 5 |
Status and editorial notes sources cited
Sources are listed below. Their presence does not certify every claim; source-specific interpretations and unresolved questions are identified in the text. This page has not received independent expert approval.